They used to do this thing as well. Lincoln appointed a Democrat loyalists as his VP. Who then proceeded to veto every attempt by Republicans to fix the voting situation in the South. This caused a long enough delay for the KKK to change the votes of blacks and cause a resurrection of Democrat holds. In that case, it went badly. These days, it’s not like it would work worse than what we have now. Even if you gave the choice to a Republican like Bush 2 or McCain, who do you think they would pick? Many of them Democrats or allies of the same, like many many many people who we now know to be culturally allied with the Left, not America.

kolnai: I am happy to tag-team with you. There’s so much wrong with Romney I can’t bash it all myself.

neo: Maybe people keep thinking the field was weak because we’ve allowed the job to become too large. The President is supposed manage the entire economy (including gas prices), provide care for the old and the sick, keep foreign bogeyman at bay, minister over nearly every personal choice in our domestic lives, and be an inspiring example for both our kids and oppressed masses around the globe. All before 9am.

Our acquiescence to the modern bureaucratic state means we are essentially trying to elect a minor god. I say take it the opposite way. If the candidates can’t handle the job, maybe we need to trim the job description. The Constitution provides a nice model for a presidency that real people could fulfill.

I voted Democratic until 2008. When Obama said that the chief quality he was looking for in a supreme court justice was “empathy” and shortly thereafter responded to Russia’s aggression against Georgia by calling for both sides to show restraint I knew I was going to have to vote Republican.

For that matter, he ran a lousy campaign but I thought McCain was about as good as you’re going to get at that level of politics and he certainly is an admirable and heroic person.

Thank YOU for taking it in good humor. I was poking fun at myself (I’m the resident Romney basher; maybe Foxmarks matches me though :). I’m really not THAT pedantic, though lord knows it is the great vice of my type.

Well, actually communism and lesser variants of far leftism are the great vices of my type. Any guesses what my type is? (Hint: starts with “a” and ends in “-cademics”).

Politics is brutal because of the Left. Just in general that is so. The aristocrats do not really like peasants and peons and people who didn’t make the educational “cut” and “accent”, near their circles of power. They have ways to make sure of this. And all Americans engaging in the political process, are affected by this cultural imperative one way or another, even if they aren’t part of the aristo class.

I think a large part of the explanation of this is the anonymity on the Internet. People say things to and about other people they’d never say to their faces. If the did, they’d get smacked.

Although I do find Romney hatred palatable, and I’d be delighted if you did too, I think you were gunning for “palpable.”